Names of God | Week 1 | Bill Bush | Full Service

And so that's the the and that's just a generic Hebrew name for God or gods. It's in chapter two that you get his actual or formal name. It's it's a compound

version to declare that this is god, the creator god. In chapter two, when it goes more into depth, chapter two is the creation story again, but it focuses on the creation of man and woman, Adam and Eve. And all of a sudden, it gets more personal. And you get this compound Greek Hebrew word, and it's it's Yahweh Elohim.

Yahweh Elohim.

And this is what we're gonna look at. This is the name. This is like God all the other names we're gonna look at are kinda those adjective names, those attribute names. But this is really kinda the name to define him by his his formal name. Matter of fact, the the the way the the Hebrews, when they write this, they took the vowels out of it. They wouldn't actually ever pronounce it out loud. It was to be revered so highly and so holy. And it's been transliterated in a way that's if you hear Jehovah.

Jehovah is another way of trying to spell and write, but the name is actually Yahweh. And and and it's interesting in chapter two, it's Yahweh Elohim. It says, Elohim was God created. But then in chapter two, it's almost like as in this day and culture, every little country, every tribe, they have their own god.

And it was almost like when you went into a land, alright, what god should I show some honor to here because they're more powerful in their own land? It's like having home field advantage at a sport.

But what god so when you write just Elohim and you read that story and you lived in this day and time, you thought to say, okay, there's a god that created, but who is that god? It could be anybody. It's just this generic, like, there's a higher power that created. We have no idea who they are.

Chapter two says, no. No. No. Just to be sure that you understand, God is saying is he adds this Yahweh to it that makes it very personal, very declarative, and what we'll see when we define what Yahweh means in a minute. Look at a verse. It's it's basically saying, no. There there's only one God,

and I'm him, and this is who created everything. And it makes it very personal. He gets very personal because he's starting to describe about us, men and women. And he calls us to a different calling than all of the rest of creation.

And in that creative story, you see the idea of why it's good to know the name of God, because he created us, creator God, Yahweh Elohim, created us for relationship and for purpose.

First, relationship with him. It says he walked with them in the garden. He created us to have a relationship with him, a very personal relationship with him. Even and and and to be with him. He also created us to have relationships with one another. That's why he said it's not good for man to be alone.

He'll destroy the house. And and and and so we're meant to have relationships with one another. So God's first order was he created us for a purpose.

It's not just a generic relationship. It's a purposeful relationship. And that's he gave man, when he gave us a job, he gave us a Kong. He says he said, hey, tend to this garden. He gave us gifts and and a mission. And then he also said, go be fruitful and multiply. He gave us the fun part of the job. And

and so he's he's always calling us to go. It's not just, hey, I'm in a relationship. He wants us to have a relationship, but his relationship is always purposeful. It's not just sit here and know me and have you know, we have good, warm,

fuzzy feelings about each other. It's I've invited you to go with me on a purposeful journey in this relationship. And what we're gonna see through scripture and what is the challenge that we're gonna see at the end of this is, this purposeful relationship,

wanting to be in a relationship with Jesus without the purposeful part, is why many of us are sitting here and your faith is going nowhere and it's just kinda flatlined. We're trying to have relationship without purpose.

And then there's some of us in this room that you don't really know you've never surrendered your life to Jesus. You come to church but you think it's like self help, I just gotta be a better person. You're trying to be purposeful. You're trying to do the purposes of God without the relationship. But

Yahweh Elohim, the God who created us, created us, they're both, they're two sides to the same coin. We need both of them. You can't truly be in a relationship without the purpose. And when you follow the purpose, it deepens the relationship.

And we're gonna see that as as we go, and I'm gonna explain what this name Yahweh means as we turn over to Exodus chapter three.

Exodus chapter three. It's just it's right after Genesis. It's the very next book, and in Exodus chapter three, we pick up a story in the life of Moses, and you guys all know you know the story of Moses? Heard of Moses, Prince of Egypt? You've watched that cartoon maybe?

He he Moses was born in a time when when God's people come together, but, you know, they ended up in the in enslaved in Egypt, and they've been slaves for for for hundreds of years now,

and they're treated cruelly. And matter of fact, the the pharaohs, they keep multiplying anyways even though they're they're they're they were taking God's purpose, literally go be fruitful and multiply, and it was becoming a threat. So the Pharaoh says we need some population control on them, so he ordered the firstborn

babies to be killed, the male children to be killed. Well, Moses' mom didn't wanna be killed, so she stuck him in a basket and said, you know, he might die anyways, but at least there's a shot here. And and sent him down the river, and guess who finds him? A princess. You know, he gets he ends up growing up in the house of Pharaoh. Ends up a prince of Egypt.

But he knows his heritage, and it says he knows his heritage. And you would think, wow. Perfect. God has set him up for a great purpose. He's gonna be in this powerful position. He's he's one of God's people. He knows that. He knows God.

Now he's being set up to be in a perfect position to do something about their plight. Right? Well, he decides to try to do something about it. But it doesn't it doesn't list like God told him to it. He didn't seem to have that relationship there. He tries to do it in his own strength, his own power. Purpose without the relationship. He just he he sees a

Jewish slave being beaten by an Egyptian officer, and he gets angry, and he he just kills them. Well, backfires.

It's like what I talked about last week when he says, hey, we're called to do something in our world, but sometimes we gotta think about it, be prayerful, and and go about it. He just ran in there, killed this guy, and it didn't work. So now he's a fugitive from the Egyptians. He's no longer in his position of power, but he's also totally rejected by his own people.

They're like, great. You just made it harder on us now. And so he had to flee, and he goes into the wilderness. And he and Exodus three picks up forty years later. He's married, his father-in-law is a priest, he still believes in God, but he's basically just out there being a shepherd doing his thing, living his life.

And now God reengages relationally and purposefully like he always does. A relationship with God will always come with a call to go in the purpose of God. It will, always will. Always. And so here you go. So we're gonna pick up the story here. It says, one day Moses was tending to the flock of his father Jethro,

the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of the bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn't burn up.

This is amazing, Moses said to himself. Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go see it. So he gets closer to what God's doing just because he's like kinda blown away by the amazing thing. It's like, that was cool. I wanna go check this out. And as he draws in, it says, then the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look. Gaul called to him from the middle of the bush. Moses, Moses,

here I am, Moses replied. I don't know if you but I always think it's it's when I read these bible stories, I always just have questions in my own head. Maybe it's just me. I go, this has gotta be the edited version.

There's gotta be the the director's cut out there somewhere of what really happened. There's gotta be the Snyder version of this that's that's that's like four and a half hours long, you know. Because that's kinda odd to me. My first reaction, if I saw a bush on fire and it wasn't being burnt,

and I walked up to see it and then it talked to me by name, I'm not sure I go, here I am. I'm not sure I'd wanna know whatever is talking. I don't want it to know where I am. Anyways, that's just me, sorry. And then he says, don't come any closer, the Lord warned. Take off your sandals for you are standing on holy ground.

See, God is holy, he's righteous, this is kind of showing a point, you can't When we think of God as just the nice guy, you forget he's also the holy righteous creator of all. He says, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord told him,

I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of the harsh slave drivers. Yes, I'm aware of their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey, and a land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. Look,

the cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have not seen how harshly the Egyptians abused them.

So he goes right into this conversation. He just jumps right in. Okay. Now I have seen the people suffer. I know what's happening to your people. I know it's like, isn't that weird that he just randomly picks up this conversation? Have you ever have have

you have a really, really good friend or you've been married a long time, do you ever notice do you have like my wife and I have this this superpower. Tomorrow will be our thirtieth wedding anniversary. Yeah. So pray for my wife. She's had to put up with me for thirty years.

Tomorrow's d day. When she suggested June 6 as a wedding day, she never understood why I said, yes, that's the day. She didn't know in my head. Was like, I'll never forget it because it's d day. I love history, so I won't forget. I'm watching history channel, d day special. Oh my gosh, it's almost my anniversary.

Shh. Don't tell her. But but we will talk about something. And like four days later, we're like getting ready, doing her hair, I'm brushing my teeth, and she will just pick up mid sentence of where our conversation ended four days ago. Not no context, nothing, just start talking, and I understand where we are.

And I go, yeah, you're right. And we just write engage, and we'll catch ourselves and laugh about it. Anybody else have that superpower? Well, some of you guys are like, now I understand why I'm confused all the time in my house. Because you weren't paying attention four days ago, you still don't know what's going on.

And so it feels like that's happening here. Like, God is picking up a conversation that's already been. And if you know Moses' history, it's almost like God already knows,

and maybe Moses has been talking to him. Maybe he's prayed, I feel for my people. And he's gotta feel some guilt and some shame because he did try to do something about it forty years ago and it went horribly wrong. The last time he tried to do something about it, someone died. He lost his position, he ran for his life,

and now he's just spent the last forty years being a nobody out in the middle of nowhere just doing this thing.

And God like already knows his heart, he knows where he's at, and I think he's also jumping right in where he thinks Moses might have a little bit of a doubt and bitterness. Yeah, he feels shame about what he did and it didn't work, but he also might say, and I can't believe God's done nothing. Does God even care?

Maybe you're like that, you still believe in that, you're just doing your thing, you show up at church, But there's things in your past that man, feel guilt, I feel bad, I tried that before, it didn't work.

And you might even be a little bit frustrated with God, anyways, I prayed to God about it, prayed to God about and he just doesn't seem to care or do anything about it. What are you supposed to do? Well, God shows up

and he jumps right into the conversation. He goes, you know what, you're right. Moses, just what you've been thinking about and worried about, feel guilt about, feel frustration over, I know what's going on and I'm gonna do something about it. That's what he said.

And you think Moses would be, finally, great. Awesome, God. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know. But look what he says next. God says, I am gonna do something about it. And in verse 10, he then says, now go, for I'm sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.

So here he says, I've heard, I've known, I've seen what's going on. I'm here to do something about it. And Moses like, yeah. Yeah. And he goes, so now I need you to go. You're gonna go to Pharaoh.

Think about hearing that. God's gonna finally do something. You're the one that tried. It didn't work. It's been forty years. You're out there doing your own thing. And God says, I'm gonna do something. You know how I'm gonna do it? I'm sending you.

I'd have so many doubts and questions in my head, wouldn't you? It'd be like, I've already done that. I've tried that. I'm a fugitive. I'm not even a prince of Egypt anymore. I tried to do it when I had a position of power. I had the right position. I had the right influence. I had the right stuff. I had all of that, and it didn't work. And now that I'm a nobody that's a fugitive and it's been forty years, you're gonna

now? Yeah. Now. I need you to go. And Moses reacts like I would. I think we all would. I think our natural reaction is to do what Moses does right here. He says, but Moses protested to God. The one who's in a burning bush speaking to him. He's like, who am I to appear before pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people out of Egypt?

I think this is the problem when it comes to our relationship with God.

Whenever he asks us to go, when he gives us the purposeful part of the relationship, we always start in the wrong place. We start by looking at ourselves instead of looking at God. We start with who we are. We start with where we are. We start with what we have. We start with what we've done wrong. We start with the

the past. We start with the issues. We start with the fear. We start with the doubt. We start with the frustration. We start with us. We say, I can't because of who I am. But what we're gonna see here is because he is, I can. That's what we need to start with.

And that, for many of us in this room, by the time we're done here today, I hope that this unlocks a new perspective on the way you see by seeing God's name and seeing what happens in the story. That instead, there's some things that you're like, I can't go with the Lord

because of who you are, where you've been, what's happened to you, what you have, what other people have done. You're starting with I can't. But look what happens. God answered, I will be with you. See, starts with who am I? And he goes, it doesn't matter. I'm there too.

That's why God's call, his love, the way he loves us and wants a relationship with us always comes with a purposeful call to go because that's where he's going. And he's invited us to come along. And that's where you're gonna relate to him the most.

And so he says, I will be with you. And this is the sign that I'm gonna I'm the one who has sent you. Look at what he says is the sign. When you've brought the people out of Egypt, you'll worship God at this very Mountain. The important part is the sign, he's like,

the sign isn't him to worship there. That's a task list. He's here's what I want you to do. I want you to come back here. You know what the sign is? I already told you it's gonna work. He's like, when you stop fighting me, when you start surrendering, here's what's gonna happen. It's gonna work. And

I need you when it works to come back here. We're gonna come back here. This is rally point alpha right here is what we're gonna do. He already told him it's gonna work. And then Moses protested again,

which we do all the time. God's already declared victory. You realize if I'm a Christian, I'm not living for his love, I'm living from his love. I'm also not fighting for victory in my life, I'm fighting from victory in my life.

And we need to understand that and embrace that and surrender to that. Because that changes the way we make decisions when something is put in front of us that seems scary.

Because God will always ask us to do the scary thing. If you think the safety of knowing the Lord is not to be in a scary situation, you don't understand who the Lord is.

So he protests again. If I go to the people of Israel and tell them the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they'll ask, what is his name? And then what should I tell him? What he's trying to say there is, like I said, they're real territorial. You show up the God of your

Pharaoh, everyone, his own people are gonna be what God? We need to know which one. And so God's like, okay. Here's the answer. Verse 14, God replied to Moses,

I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations. Yahweh there?

It says Yahweh. But when it says I am and I am that I am, that's also Yahweh. What it's trying to do in English is is kind of interpret what Yahweh is, then he actually puts it Yahweh one time. So it's all saying this name Yahweh. And so when he says, tell him Yahweh sent you.

And then the English tries to translate, tells us what does it mean. It says I am that I am or I am. This is the weird thing about the name Yahweh. It is so beautifully simple, yet the simplicity of what it actually means is so complex we'll never truly comprehend all of it.

Because that word Yahweh in Hebrew literally means, the most literal in English it says to be or I am. To be. Okay. That's simple. Say to be has sent you. Or I am. I am has sent you. I am who I am. Green eggs and ham has sent me to you. Now to us in English, like, great, his name's I am.

But but but and and it's not that pet food. I ams. But I am, to say to be, in in the to try to describe it to us in our words, is it means existence.

Reality. Eternality. I am that I am is saying I am the only thing that has always been, that always is, and always will be. He's saying that his name means life itself. Everything else came from me. There is nothing that has existed that I didn't speak into existence. I created time and space,

and that there are in other words, like in the creation story when he says Yahweh, what he's trying to say is there's not a bunch of gods. There's one God.

There is only one God. I am him. That's what that declaration is. To say Yahweh, to say I am is saying, hey, it's a statement that the Hebrews are saying there is no territorial gods. There is. This is all a bunk. There is one God, the Lord God Almighty. That's when you read in your English when it says, the Lord God, it's saying Yahweh.

It means that he is. I am, I was, I am, and I will always be. I existed before all. I created all. I am all powerful, all knowing, all everything, and I will never completely we will never completely understand because we have a start. We don't understand eternity because we we can understand maybe living forever, starting now and never dying, but eternity goes both directions.

God is existence in everything in and of itself.

That is powerful, and this same God, Yahweh, is the one who actually came to save us.

He came to save us. He not only is all of existence, he's the one that made us, he's the one that knows the plan. He is perfect in all ways. He's also the one that chose to make things right. Because when man fell, when we sin, we're all stuck in sin. We're in a broken world. So our relationship is broken, our purpose is skewed.

And God says, I will even fix that. This story is a symbol of what God has been doing ever since. He goes to free people enslaved. He brings freedom to those enslaved. We are all enslaved to death and to sin, and he's still going to do that. He's still calling us to do that.

Because if you jump in his name I am, you jump into the New Testament, it's still the same thing. You're like, what does that have do with us? We're Christians now. We got the New Testament. It's a happy God. It's not Old Testament, the great grumpino. No, he's the same God. I am. He hasn't changed.

He still sends us. Jesus' final words after he rose from the dead to the disciples, to us was to say go.

He still sent us to go, purposefully. Go make disciples. Point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. Go be in a relationship with others, point them to a relationship with me. I now have a relationship. I wanna know you. And what he did, he started with a relationship. He died for us. When we accept his grace, we are now in a relationship with So from his love, he now wants to send us on purpose

for him. That's the goal. He still does it. Jesus comes. Well, who's this Jesus? You know what? Jesus' name. Jesus' name wasn't Jesus. It's a transliteration. His name wasn't Jesus. He had a Hebrew name, Yeshua. It's where we get Joshua from. But you know what Yeshua means in Hebrew? Yahweh saves.

So Jesus, his name was trying to tell us something. And it was more than us wearing a Jesus saves shirt. He wasn't just saying, hey, Yahweh saves. I've come to tell you that.

Let me show you what I mean on who Jesus was. Just to set the stage on on what we're doing. In in John eight, he starts to have this conversation with the people and some religious leaders, and he starts to talk about Abraham and and these things. And they're like, hey, wait, he's speaking with way too much authority. He's acting like he's like, who does he think he is? And so they start to question him. And I wanna pick up in verse 53 of John eight. It says, are you greater than our father Abraham?

He died and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are? Let's keep going. Jesus answered, if I want glory for myself, it doesn't count, but it's my father who will glorify me. You say he's our God,

but you don't even know him. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you. Talk about throw punch. But I do know him and obey him. Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. This is where it starts to get weird. He saw it and was glad.

The people said, you aren't even 50 years old. How can you say you've seen Abraham? And here it comes. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born.

See that? In the in the Greek that's ego, I mean. That's the Greek version of saying Yahweh.

Jesus' name wasn't just to say this guy Yahweh is gonna save you. Jesus' name was I am here to save you. Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is the great I am. The Jesus that died for you and me so we can be back in relationship is the one who was, is, and forever will be.

So when you go back into this story in Exodus, guess who's talking to that burning bush? It's a pre incarnate Jesus. Why it says the angel of the Lord. Whenever see that capital angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, that's Jesus before he was took on the incarnation, became had put on the nature of a man.

That is is the eternal great I am. That's Jesus calling Moses to go. That's Jesus saying I'll be with you. That's Jesus saying I'm in the business of freeing people and slaves. That's the God of the universe that says I want a relationship with you. I want you to go on mission with me purposefully,

and I'm gonna eventually die to make this all happen. And most looking forward to what we look back on, but it's still Jesus, the same call. That's Jesus speaking out of the burning bush. You go back to Genesis one and two and it says, hey, he created, but then it says Yahweh Elohim created,

and it's Yahweh. That's Jesus who created. John one actually confirms that. John one says it was Jesus that created. Jesus spoke us into existence. Jesus talked to Moses. Jesus came and died for you and me, and Jesus still wants the same thing as the great I am. The all powerful, all knowing,

all existence. He is life itself. He doesn't just give life. He is life. Zoe is another Greek word that means life. He is the Zoe. And if you come here not knowing who he is, you are coming looking for him to give you something when what we need is him.

And what he wants is I wanna have a relationship with you from love and grace. I will save you. Yahweh saves. Jesus will save us from ourselves. But then he wants us to be go on purpose with him. Some

of us are having a hard time. You don't have a relationship with Jesus because you can't surrender to his love. I can never be forgiven because of who I am. I can never trust Jesus because of who I am. I can never trust or know him because of what's happened to me. That's not true. Because he is, you can. You say, I can't because of who I am. Because he is. He is and was and always will be. He is the I am. Because of who he is, you can be forgiven. Because of who he is, you can have a right relationship with God. Because of him, you can.

But then some of you know Jesus, but you forgot about the purpose part. You want the relationship without the purpose.

I can't, I can't go do that, who am I? It's not about who you are, about who's sending you, because he's going with you. You can. I can't serve God, I don't have the time. Because he is, you can. I can't really serve God because there's people that are more gifted than me. Because he is, you can.

I can't honor God with my finances and and really focus on the mission of pointing people to Jesus. I'm I'm I just I don't have that.

Because he is, you can.

When you surrender to who he is, he says, hey, just go with him. He'll take care of the rest. I'll show you. Go on in the story. I'll show you how it works. So

he says, now go. Says, He go again. Go and call together all the elders of Israel. Tell them Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob has appeared to me.

He told me, I've been watching closely and I see how the Egyptians are treating you. I've promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey, the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.

Isn't it interesting how often he keeps repeating all these enemies that are in the land he's gonna give them?

This is just a side note. You'll hold another sermon, throw this in for free. He's not only telling them they're gonna have victory and he's gonna take them there, but he's also warning them there's gonna be a fight when you get there. You're still gonna have enemies in front of you. You're gonna have to continue

to trust me. A lot of us think, well, trusted him once and and and things still didn't just get easy. He never promised to get easy. When you go where God goes, he's gonna go to hard places. But he's with you. Just remember that. The elders of Israel will accept your message.

Then you and the elders must go to the king and tell him, the Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us, so please let us take a three day journey in the wilderness to offer sacrifice to the Lord our God. So basically then you're gonna go, let us go.

And he says, but I know the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand forces him. That's even gonna be fair. He already says, Pharaoh's gonna say no.

And he goes, so I will raise my hand and strike the Egyptians forming all kinds of miracles among them. Then at last he'll let you go. See this is the thing. Whenever you go someplace that you don't think you can go, but God says this is where I'm sending you, just trust me, his power goes with you.

And he will work in ways that you can't do. That's why when you start with me, I can't do this because you're looking at all the things you can't do, you're forgetting the God who can. You're making it about you.

And that's what's holding so many of us back. I'm talking to a bunch of you who've been Christians for a long time in this room. You have been locked, your faith has not grown in years, nothing is happening in your life, you keep coming to church, It's because you're all about what you can't instead of seeing he who is.

He goes, I will and not only will you win, he'll let you go. He says, I'll cause the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go, so you will not leave empty handed. Ever Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and your foreign women in her houses.

You will dress your sons and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth. You'll be like, hey, Betty, you know, remember that necklace and that dress I saw you wearing all the time when I was slaving away making bricks? Take it, just leave.

Why? Because of you? Because they're afraid of you? No, they've seen the hand of God. And there's a victory.

So God even prayed like think about it like, well even if we do get free and go, where do we go? We have nothing. We were slaves. How are we gonna afford to support ourselves? How are gonna even live? See, if you think that way, you never get started. God provided for them in a way they never saw coming.

This time he actually told them that's how it's gonna work.

But then in chapter four, Moses I think is a stand in for us, but Moses protested again. He keeps coming back to him. He goes, what if they won't believe me or listen to me? What if they say the Lord never appeared to you? Then the Lord asked him, what's that in your hand? A shepherd's staff, Moses replied.

Throw it on the ground, the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff and it turned into a snake. Moses jumped back. He's like, oh wow, I've been using that thing for forty years, never done that before.

Because he doesn't jump back when a burning bush talks to him. He sees a snake, which he sees all the time, and he's like, woah. Then the Lord told him, reach out and grab it by the tail. That's kinda interesting to me. You've ever had to handle snakes, you know you don't grab them by the tail.

You grab a rattlesnake by the rattles, you're getting bit. But he told him to. He's like, that sounds kinda weird. But So Meals just reached out and grabbed it and turned back into the shepherd's staff in his hand.

He says, perform this sign, the Lord told them. Then they'll believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob really has appeared to you. Then the Lord, just to add a little bit extra power, he goes, now put your hand inside your cloak. So Moses put his hand inside his cloak. And when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow and it was a severe skin disease. It doesn't say he jumps back, that would freak me out more.

You can get away from a snake, he's like, what did you do? It's my nose picking hand, what am I gonna do now?

Now put your hand back in your cloak, the Lord said. So Moses put his hand back in and when he took it out again it was as healthy as the rest of his body. Catch that? He says I'll go with you, I'll bring my power, I'll bring in a strong hand. Well they're not gonna believe me, they're not gonna believe

So what was his answer to him? Give me what you have, who you are, your shepherd, you got that staff, right? Put that down in front of me and watch what I do when you put it down in front of me. You've been using it one way for forty years, I'm gonna take it and do something greater with it.

The cloak represents, you know, he's been a shepherd, the shepherd's cloak. Put your hand in it. You've put your hand in those pockets a million times. You've used it a million times. You've been a shepherd doing this for forty years. Pulled in, hand as he put it back in, powerful. There's a powerful

point God is making here in scripture. When God calls us to go serve his purposes, he doesn't expect us to bring anything except who we are and what we have and just say take it. And when you trust him and you go where he tells you to go and you serve the purpose he tells you to serve,

he will take what you already had and use it in a way you would never seen it work before. It'll have more power than you've ever seen. It'll work in ways you can never imagine, and the problem is

that you don't, we fight with I don't have enough, or I'm not this, or I don't have that, or there's people more qualified, this and that. And what you're missing is it's not about you. It's not about me. It's about letting God take what we have and who we are and empowering it himself.

He goes with us. That's why most of us flatline in our faith. You want the relationship without the purpose, but 90%

of the relationship happens through the idea of trusting him in the purpose. Because that's where you get to see the great I am, be the great I am. That's where you see the power of God start to work. That's where you see God take you where you're at, and you not only get that relationship, you understand he's not only forgiven you, you don't constantly worry about the sins. You can let him go because you can trust he really didn't forgive you, and you see him work in your life. You know he's in relationship with you. When you don't choose to go on purpose and let him empower your life, you just sit there, did he forgive me? I don't know. Why do I still have this problem? It's all about you. You're only looking at you, thinking about you, focusing on you. When you look to him and say, saying I can't because whatever, and you say, because he is, I can, everything changes.

Everything changes. But you have to be willing. At the end of chapter four, go read it, he finally listens. He does it, and we're still talking about him. He's one of the greatest leaders in Israel's history.

This guy that started off killing someone, trying to do it on his own, running, living for forty years, being a shepherd goes back, faces down Pharaoh, and by the mighty hand of the power of God using him, he frees these people and walks them out. They walk through and they end up parting a sea, they end up seeing even greater things than what happened before.

But you're never gonna see that if you don't surrender to that.

So where are you at on this?

What's your I can't? Is it I can't really be forgiven? You can. Anything you're wrestling with, Jesus already knew. He already died for it. Go to him.

Accept his grace. That's what it means to be born again. If you've never done that, just turn to him. Say, I'm a sinner. I'm broken. I've I've I've tried things on my own. Even like Moses, you've like, I've tried to be the good person on my own. It's not working.

It's like that baby. Cry out to him and say, I I need you Jesus, you can do that.

Or for a lot of you, maybe it's it's it's you know Jesus, but you're you just won't surrender to his purpose. And what is purpose is very clear in the New Testament. If you are a Christian, let me just bottom line it for you. If you're a Christian and you call this your church and you're not serving somewhere

in the church, you are not listening to God's call on your life. Because he always calls us in the context of community, the body. Always.

There's a modern thing, lot of especially young people like, I don't really need a church. I'll attend like a cafeteria. I like this guy's teaching, I like that music. I can just watch online and do my own thing. COVID did that to a lot of people. They think you can just stay online and do it. I go, yeah, fine. If being a Christian is all about just you and the information you gather,

but that's not what That's a lie from the pit of hell. In a military strategy, cults, military, you know the best thing you do if you have this huge army? Split it up. If you isolate, you can annihilate.

You are listening to a lie from the pit of hell to think that you can just go to a church and not actually be connected. The enemy wants you to believe that because he'll stop your faith from moving forward.

So I'm gonna just flat out tell you the whole New Testament is very obvious. If you are a Christian and this is your church, God's call to go is to go find a place to serve every single one of you. I can't. I don't have time. Nobody has time in this world.

God will give you enough time. If you don't have enough time to do what God told you to do, you're spending too much of your time on something you shouldn't be doing.

Don't you tell your kids that? Why do you like sending them to camps and keeping busy in the summer? If I keep busy doing something good, they won't be doing something bad. Apply that to yourself, mom and dad.

Your finances. God wants you to honor God. Honor him with your money through being a part of the kingdom movement,

and that's a gift he gives you. Most of you the reason your finances are messed up and you can't give is because your finances are messed up because you don't give a care in the world about what God wants you to do with it.

And when you start doing what God wants you to do with it, you start looking at your money different, and it'll bring financial freedom to you. I'm not saying he's just gonna give you more money. Blessings is more than just giving you something.

He'll bless you with peace. You'll stop arguing with each other about it all the time. You will start having a focus and God will do it just like that staff. I only have this, this is all I got. You give him what he asked for, you put it down in front of him, he's gonna do something more powerful than you would ever do with that money.

This is where the rubber hits the road. God's relationship with you is always gonna involve a call to go and be practical and purposeful with your life. He's gonna ask you to put what you are, who you are, and what you have in front of him and let him use it.

And I guarantee for everyone in this room and watching the bulk of the people in this room, that's what you're struggling with. And that's why you're fighting all these other issues on the side. In other words, if you row the boat, you're too busy to be rocking the boat. So will you?

Will you? Because here's what the deal is, there is a difference, a vast difference between going and leaving. God always calls us to go. Go means I'm going, I'm calling you to go with me. Going implies a sentness.

Going implies there's a purpose. There is a mission. We're gonna go. It's go time. It's not leave time. No one ever says, the military when you're about to go into an accord, it's go time. A team, it's go time. It's never, hey guys, it's leave time. Leave time means great talk, see you later.

And that's what a lot of us do. We come into church, we spend a few hours here, we're here for whatever time we're here, and we're like, that was powerful. We open up God's word, it's like the burning bush. God speaks to us through this. And you even in your heart, you feel something. And then you're like, great talk, God. And then you leave.

Almost like Moses was trying to do. He's like, but what about he was basically saying, this was amazing. I saw you. I know you're I'm so glad you're gonna do something about the people. That was awesome. I'm super encouraged. I gotta get back to the flocks later, God. Maybe can we do this again next week?

Maybe only about twice a month. My kids are in a lot of sports and I like to travel.

I'm telling you, there's signs on these doors above them. See over there you can see them? It says go. Because when you go here, I want you to be reminded, you're going. You're not just leaving. And how many of you are just gonna leave again? My grandson, my grandson he's almost three.

He's gotten into this thing, he comes over and we hang out and he loves pop, I'm pop, my wife's Lolly, together we're Lolly Pop.

I don't see myself as ever being the type of guy that would do that, but yet here we are.

And he's a typical he likes rough and tumble time. He wants me to go, pop, get on the floor. I'm gonna knock you over. He goes all the way to other end, runs at me like baby goat, and just tackles me. We fall over. I get back up. He goes, stay down.

And then he goes, and what he want means is he wants me to get back up and challenge him again. He'll do that for twenty five straight minutes. I'm exhausted. You know the best workout plan is? Is just try to do what your kid's doing all day.

And and and he does that, then he wants to, you know, watch movies all over and over, and I got him interested in Superman Returns because I like that movie. And now I've seen it 12 times in the last two weeks. Not sure I like it so much anymore. But I do that because I love him, and he loves it. It's a great time.

I'm also the classic grandparent. When I was a parent, hey, you've had two cookies. You've had enough. Now his mom comes, did he eat? Yeah. I think we ate two sleeves of Oreos and and he had some chocolate. I don't care. He's going home. So he loves it. He loves to relate and have all that fun with me.

But then before he's getting ready to go, I wanna go have him go with a purpose. I go, hey, come give pop a hug and a kiss. I want him to embrace me and I tell him I love him and send him with this purpose. And you know what he's been doing? He'll look at me and he'll go, no, pop. I'm just gonna leave.

And then he walks out the door.

He's now figured out it bothers me, so I think he does it on purpose now. But he's serious. I'm not gonna give you a hug. No, pop. I don't wanna give you a hug. I'm just gonna leave. I'm just gonna leave. And it's cute, but also kinda heartbreaking at the time. But here's my point.

That's what a lot of us keep doing every week.

Or every time you happen to open your bible at home, how many times have you heard a message, have you sat here and God's saying, alright, I wanna embrace you, hug me. I wanna embrace you with my love. You need to accept Christ. Maybe you've never done that. And he's like, come hug me. He's like, no. No, God.

I'm just gonna leave and go back to my life. How many are sitting here and you just got convicted because you've known the Lord a long time? You've been in the church a long time? You don't serve. You don't give. You just come.

And you know, you know in your heart, you wanna get mad at me, but you know what the word about God says. You know what the spirit of God is saying to you, and you are just fixated on your can't. And you're like, ugh. And you're sitting here in this moment, you're being like my grandson. He knows I love him. He loves me, but he doesn't wanna do it. It's not I can't. Some of you are just I won't.

And you're sitting here right now wrestling, and you're gonna be like, no, God. I'm just gonna leave. Don't do that anymore. Stop leaving and start going. Because he is, I can. That's what's so powerful about the name Yahweh.

He was, he is, he always will be. He is the God of all. He is the Lord of all. He is Jesus who actually died for all. He died so you can. Embrace it. Embrace it. So will you just stand? Our closing prayers, we're gonna go back to the last song we sang at the top end of the set. You can sing, make it your prayer,

but for many of you, you probably need to just have a moment before the burning bush. The babbling bush is done.

Listen to the Lord right now. Embrace his love. Commit to his purpose Because he is, you can.

Amen, church. Our God is great and greatly to be praised. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpointe.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.